Fifty-Five Years of Sharing the World with Our Customers

In fifty-five years of traveling all around the world, we’ve seen a lot of places and made a lot of friends. One constant throughout the years is our commitment to one simple idea: sharing the world with our customers. Doors do open for us … because we have the key. Experience.

There’s no substitute for experience. The only way to create and develop a great trip … be it an experience-of-a-lifetime or that smooth, stress-free quick getaway … is by having been there ourselves. Few travel agents have the first hand knowledge or industry expertise that we and our staff do. For more than 50 years, we have traveled the world discovering new sites, new hotels, new restaurants and where to find one-of-a-kind bargains. Not to mention, sights of interest (and of disinterest…).

It all started in 1954, when a young German exchange student at DePauw University began offering student tours to Europe. After graduating with a masters in political science, Othmar Grueninger expanded his successful student business into a full-service travel agency in 1956 based in Indianapolis. Using his native knowledge of Europe, he started arranging European tours for corporate travel clubs. Throughout the years, Grueninger Travel continued to grow, opening branches across the Midwest and Northeast. We led the industry with innovative travel offerings such as rail tours across Canada and the West in Grueninger-owned Pullman cars, specialty cruises in the Mediterranean and Great Lakes on leased ships, and off-season getaway weeks in Portugal and Spain.

In 1973, George Mikelson launched his dream. Together with 100 charter members and one Boeing 720 aircraft, he formed Ambassadair Travel Club and over the course of the next 32 years created the largest private travel club in the nation. When ATA found it necessary to sell Ambassdair’s assets in 2005, Grueninger Travel Group jumped at the chance and the legacy lives on. Blending 50 years of Grueninger Tour experience with Ambassadair’s group travel foundation is winning combination.